this is just a trick to keep from typing today

[jason]

I usually hear something awsome that someone's mixed, then I go out and buy a bunch of albums which that guy has done. Here's mix guys who I've been all over in the last little while....

Mark 'Spike' Stent- a mystery to me how he gets some stuff to sound like it does.
Michael Brauer- beautiful colours.
Nigel Godrich- radiohead stuff is impressive.
Andy Wallace- consistently awsome stuff.
our humble moderator- mixes always inspire creativity.

cheers,jason

[jho]

William Orbit
Alex Sadkin
Trevor
Zappa
Nile Rogers

[slantbar]

Trevor Horn--Art of Noise, Frankie etc.

Jellyfish

Most Daniel Lanois stuff

Jonatha Brooke--the Clearmountain stuff

Brian Tankersley's mixes on Anthony Smith

How do you narrow it down, there are so many....

[Drumsound]

Some of my major influences:

Los Lobos--Colossal Head (Mitchell Froom/Tchad Blake produced Tchad Blake mixed, our own John Paterno engineered...)

Flaming Lips--The Soft Bulletin (Dave Fridman produced, recorded and mixed)

The first three Chicago records (James William Guerico produced)

All Led Zeppelin records (Jimmy Page produced) III, Houses of the Holy and Presence are my favs

John Coltrane--A Love Supreme (Bob Thiele produced Rudy Van Gelder engineered) The greatest record ever!

Miles Davis--Kind of Blue (Teo Mercero produced)

I could go on for days...

I'm really into TLA mixes, I love the way they jump out of the speakers, esp Weezer, Owsley and Tracey Bonham

Anything with Jon Brion involved is bound to be cool. I found a used copy of The Grays a year ago and I've listened to it hundreds of times. My friend found a used copy last weekend. She had heard mine and was jonsing hard.

I love how real Brendan O’Brien’s stuff sounds.

[ttauri]

Originally posted by Dave Pensado
2. Any Frankie Goes to Hollywood by Trevor Horn

For me it was especially "p:machinery" by Propaganda. I've always said that if a fiendish cartoon supervillain were to construct a device that used sound waves to level cities, it would somehow involve the use of the horn riffs from that record. I remember just turning the volume up Up UP, like I couldn't get it loud enough. I think that was pretty much the first record where I paid attention to audio engineering. (Also at that time, studying a lot of New Order and Yaz songs, but those were slightly different since it was the remixers I was noticing.)

Then it goes like:
- "I Know You Got Soul" - Eric B & Rakim
- "RAW" - Big Daddy Kane
- Mecca & The Soul Brother - Pete Rock & CL Smooth
- Andy Weatherall/Hugo Nicholson remixes
- "Sueno Latino"
- "Blue Room" - The Orb
- anything that was getting sampled (JBs, Meters, etc)
- Midnight Marauders
- "Warped Mind" (tape side) - Kan Kick
- Midnight Funk - Demon

And currently: "Indigo Bay" by Yello.

Peece,
T. Tauri

[doorknocker]

Originally posted by RichT
Wha???
If you're recording demos like that get the hell out of NJ and down(up?) to the L.A!

Right on!
BTW, a new 'legacy Edition' of Jeff Buckley's 'Grace' has just been released. There's a second CD with 'unreleased' and live stuff and a DVD with the released videos and a 30-minute doc about the recording of Grace. No mysteries resolved but nice (albeit brief) footage from Bearsville Studios, interviews with Jeff and Andy Wallace, etc.
The killer though is the first CD, a new remaster of Grace. I was apprehensive at best, given the slightly 'vulturesque' handling of Jeff's legacy and also the 'crushing' common on new remasters.
The remaster was done by George Marino and it's friggin' GREAT! I liked the original CD but here you get additional depth and details and a sound that makes you want to crawl inside the speakers. Best of all, there's no unnecessary level pushing and rather less compression than on the original release.
At least partly my faith in record companies is restored........

Andi

[Conner]

Glad someone shares the same opinion as I do.

If you say you are a fan of Grace...don't make any excuses, pick it up and see for yourself.

If you are a fan of Buckley, get the Live at Sin-e' Legacy Edition as well. Fantastic cover of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
-Remastered, with all the songs from the first of the two sets that he played for the recording(If I'm not mistaken)

[418]

Just two that haven't been mentioned yet:

Halfway Down the Sky - Splender
Just about the whole album, especially Monotone and Spaceboy...

Vs - Pearl Jam
Brendan O'Brien does it right... especially on Animal

Jeff

[BevvyB]

Epiphanies

My initial moment of wow was

Stravinsky 'Rite Of Spring'

Somehow Mr Stravinsky seemed to have mixed this without the aid of a mixing desk

First moments of record wow were something to do with

Jeff Lyne
Bee Gees

Second moments of wow were something to do with

Zappa
Keith Jarret
Oscar Peterson
& also a little to do with 'how the hell is Dave Lee Roth Eat Em And Smile so LOUD'
Art Of Noise
Captain Beefheart
Madonna 'Like A Prayer' and Patrick Leonard
Of course Trevor Horn

Third moments of wow were something to do with

Prince
Jam & Lewis
Scritti Politi
& the general new intelligent electronica

Fourth moments of wow were something to do with

LaFace

Fifth moments of wow were to do with

Nirvana
Shaun Colvin 'Few Small Repairs' mix by Bob Clearmountain

etc

Too much good stuff out there, and of course I haven't even mentioned Queen, Eagles, Carpenters, Abba.....etc

BRING BACK THE DAYS WHEN YOU DIDN'T NOTICE THE MIX 'COS THE MUSIC WAS SO GOOD

etc LOL

[Gregg Sartiano]

Originally posted by doorknocker
I was apprehensive at best, given the slightly 'vulturesque' handling of Jeff's legacy

I met J.B.'s mom here in L.A. at the "Songs to No One" release -- she talked for a good two hours about everything she's going through to protect her son's legacy while releasing appropriate material. They would've released a lot more (and a whole lot sooner!), IMO, if it was vulturesque...jeez, it's been seven years, right?

Anybody get the new Tupac Shakur album from Death (!)(oops...'Tha') Row Records yet? Seems like they come out with a new one around holiday-time every year...

*** DRUMSOUND -- GOOD TO SEE ANOTHER JON BRION FAN ON THE LIST ***

[youngpeluso]

1. Aliens Ate my Buick - Thomas Dolby (mixed by Billy Bottrell) (if you dont know...your life isnt complete. once you hear the bottom end on "Pulp Culture", you will understand what yours has to beat in order to be competitive.)

Dave you know me...im not a suck-up...but...

2. Lady Marmalade - w/ xtina, mya, pink, lil' kim, & missy (good lord that kick and vocal is INSANE...and we cant forget the cowbell)


3. Carpenters records that were mixed by Ray "Gray Ray" Gerardt. (I was raised on these albums and they still hold up. immaculate vocals.)


4. Rage Against the Machine, first album. (Andy is a GOD amoung ANTS)


5. NIN, downward spiral and fragile (take a gander at StarF***ers INC. on a big system.)



Theres a whole lot more....but these are songs i listen to at least twice a day to keep myself up on what my stuff needs to beat.

[LumenStudio]

Originally posted by illacov

Hip Hop/Rap
#4 How has anyone missed out on this guy? NAS...3 songs come to mind....Made You Look, Last Real N*gga Alive and Thief's Theme. THE VOCALS are SUPERB on these cuts that he did...I dunno what the recording chain is...if its all analog or digital a blend of both...what mike was used ...but the vocals are like God almighty on these songs without a HINT of distortion to the naked listener...I WISH...i could get my vocals this huge and crisp sounding...F*ck whatcha herd...these songs define an engineers role to the fullest. If any of the pro ME or AEs whatever on this board want to hawk their skills or value in the industry..then you will earn my money by providing me with proof that you can replicate the results of these 3 songs in a hip hop context...I have never heard anything similar from ANYONE EVER quality wise the sound quality speaks volumes...BELIEVE ME EVERY single rapper alive wants their voice to be heard this clear and intimate.

Thanks for pointing this out.

NAS - I AM - (among other NAS stuff) is on my all time top list as well as far a record production goes.

[Gie-Sound]

Let's not mention albums I like the most, but try to stay on topic.

• - Vitology - Pearl Jam (Brendan O'Brien)
  - the first Rage Against The Machine (Andy Wallace)
  - Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin (actually all their albums)
  - The Bends - Radiohead (John Leckie)
  - all Beatles albums

[innesireinar]

In no particular order:

Marcus Miller: Ethiopia
Donald Fagen: Snowbound
Johnson Bro: Stomp (R. Temperton)
Genesis: Ripples (1975)
Twista feat. R. Kelly: So sexy

Dave, I really liked the synth bass part of R. Nevill.
In the same year there was another similar (previously) track
called History by MAI TAI.

[mars]

Originally posted by BevvyB
Epiphanies

My initial moment of wow was

Stravinsky 'Rite Of Spring'

Somehow Mr Stravinsky seemed to have mixed this without the aid of a mixing desk

Ha! I just got into this the other day - mind-blowing stuff. "Rite Of Spring" is the definition of the term "dynamic range". Compressors? We doan need no steenkin' compressors!!!!

Life- Changers:

1) Beatles - "Yellow Submarine", "Imagine", "Sgt. Pepper", etc, etc, etc. I was too young to know about mixing, but I knew I wanted to make music that sounded that good.

2) "Rastaman Vibrations" - Bob Marley & The Wailers.

What can I say? Warmth, clarity, definition, solid lows, crisp highs, amazing songs, awesome arrangements. Classic. "Exodus" is awesome as well. A lot of this stuff was done on 16-track. In fact, most of the pre-"Rastaman" stuff was 8-track: drums, bass, guitar, piano/organ, percussion, lead vox, backing vox, spare track!!!

3) Anything by Quincy Jones/Bruce Swieden - esp. "The Dude", "Off The wall/Thriller", Brothers Johnson. Not Quincy, but "Dangerous" was still a serious landmark. We are not worthy...

4) Donna Summer/Georgio Moroder/Kraftwerk -

Turned my head inside out and hooked me on synths for life. Most modern dance/electronic music doesn't even come close!! (Honorable mention - Thomas Dolby "Flat Earth" album.)

5) "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" - Yes.

Trevor Horn has landed! "Take me to your Fairlight!" Mind-blowing - sent me back to school. At the time I had NO idea how half the sounds on that record were made.

6) "Sledgehammer" - Peter Gabriel. My reference track for a number of years

7) "Fixx" - Blackstreet - perfectly balaced, perfectly slammin' - still my reference track of choice. At the time, the loudest record I had ever heard.

8) "Murder Was The Case/ Natural Born Killers" Snoop Dogg & Dre

Creepy songs but awesome mixes. Shotgun-sized hole in the mix for the vocals to punch through - still don't know how it was done...

9) "OK Computer" - Radiohead/"Mezzanine" - Massive Attack

Back to school again - UK very much OK.

10) Watching Steven "Tarzan" Stanley (Talking Heads/Sly & Robbie/Steely & Clevie) at work. Mixing as performance art. Has to be seen (and heard) to be believed! When was the last time YOU mixed while doing automation from under the console or while dancing blindfolded????

[Bob Olhsson]

1. A Day In the Life
We had an acetate of it months before the album was released. It changed EVERYTHING.

2. Honky Tonk Woman
It was Motown's reference mix of the week for two years. I've heard it on the monitors of most of the great US studios of the '70s.

3. Street in the City
From Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane's incredible Rough Mix album.

4. The Tracks of My Tears
I had to do a TV mix of Smokey's original version. The basic track was so distorted that I thought the three track machine was broken. When you brought in the guitar overdub at the beginning, everything fell in place and your imagination created pure magic. An amazing lesson.

5. Rock Your Baby
George McCrae's record brought the message home that dance music had changed into something new and exciting. Unfortunately it quickly deteriorated into "disco."

6. Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Amazing records

7. "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" and "The Message"
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five changed everything. It was just like hearing "A Day in the Life" for the first time.

8. Killing Me Softly
Roberta Flack's record that I knew in my gut was a smash despite most of my friend's doubts.

9. Life's been good
Joe Walsh

10. Crisis? What Crisis?
Supertramp amazing album

11 Kodachrome
Paul Simon

12 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
Bee Gees corny but what an amazing sound

13. Your Song
It's little wonder this launched Elton John's career

14. A Song for You
Bill Medley's amazing album with nothing but a string section Herb Alpert produced this. Don't miss ANY of his "hobby" projects such as this one.

15. Pretty Woman
Roy Orbison's prototype of all hit records. Singing along can change your life

[djui5]

Originally posted by illacov

Hip Hop/Rap
#4 How has anyone missed out on this guy? NAS...3 songs come to mind....Made You Look,


If any of the pro ME or AEs whatever on this board want to hawk their skills or value in the industry..then you will earn my money by providing me with proof that you can replicate the results of these 3 songs in a hip hop context...I have never heard anything similar from ANYONE EVER quality wise the sound quality speaks volumes...BELIEVE ME EVERY single rapper alive wants their voice to be heard this clear and intimate.

I could do that for ya.....

[illacov]

besides using the sports car for your avatar (btw it is such a nice ride!)...please provide us with examples

You shouldnt have to look that hard for one since you must have done this before
or you ARE the engineer for one of these songs!!


Show and tell kids come on!

Peace
Illumination
CEO,
Mt. Olympus Records

[Gregg Sartiano]

O.K., this STILL isn't all-time top 5 (my last post was the Jon Brion top 5), but...

Metallica -- Master of Puppets, And Justice for All, and Metallica (black album)

Hearing all three of these albums come down the pike with the same artists (except Cliff was only on the first) and the same basic approach but SUCH different sonic textures was/is a lesson in mixing and production for me.

AJFA is still one of the driest albums in history -- I've been listening to it since it came out and STILL haven't decided exactly how I feel about it...sure would like to hear some bass on it, though (that's the common complaint)! There is no denying that they were going after a unique sound on that one.

[djui5]

Originally posted by illacov
besides using the sports car for your avatar (btw it is such a nice ride!)...please provide us with examples

You shouldnt have to look that hard for one since you must have done this before
or you ARE the engineer for one of these songs!!


Show and tell kids come on!

Peace
Illumination
CEO,
Mt. Olympus Records

A lot of that sound on "made ya look" is from the mix......

It was tracked well.....but the mixer took it to the next level. He cut a spot out for it.....did some sweet processing just to emphasize the sound...and set it in place in the song.
Nothing to crazy really.....NAS has a great voice in it's self.....

The song/album was tracked at Transcon and mixed in NYC somewhere......

If I remember right I think he tracked either through a C800G or a M149...not sure exactly which.

I don't really know......as I wasen't in the room when he did it.
But I did hear some of the raw vocal tracks and they sounded good...but not as good as in the final mix.


The mix on that song as a whole was great.....I love the way it came out sounding....

If you want me to track vocals like that send me an e-mail and we can discuss details.

[matolo]

- FGTH - Relax
- AC/DC - Highway to Hell
- Jazz a Saint Germain
- RATM - first album
- Shania Twain - Come on over

and I say hello to everybody! it's my first post

[Berolzheimer]

RE: Frankie Goes to Hollywood, I think a lot if not all credit is due to Trevor Horn. Listen to that record, Yes's "Owner of a Lonely Heart", & Art of Noise, and you'll hear a distinct common sonic thread through all of them that is Trevor's work.

[Rezman]

Originally posted by youngpeluso
1. Aliens Ate my Buick - Thomas Dolby (mixed by Billy Bottrell) (if you dont know...your life isnt complete. once you hear the bottom end on "Pulp Culture", you will understand what yours has to beat in order to be competitive.)

This is sooo true. I Used this as a reference track when I purchased my first "Really" expensive HiFi!!

As for mind and direction changing mixes (or Mix Reference CD's at the time!).....in chronological order

David Sylvian - When Poets Dreamed of Angels from "Secrets of the Beehive"
Verve - Lucky Man from "Urban Hymns"
Steve Vai - Still my Bleeding Heart from "Sex and Religion"
Art of noise - Most of "The Seduction of Claude deBussy"
Patricia Barber - Regular Pleasures from "Verse"

And many more of course!!

[Berolzheimer]

Now that I've gone back & read some of the previous posts I see I'm far from the first to bring up Trevor Horn's contributions.
And I totally agree about Aliens At my Buick; I love that record and also use Pulp Culture as low end reference. Great lyric too.

[thethrillfactor]

For me the "epiphany" record that to do this day makes me go back and re-examine my mixing ability is Seals first record
(SEAL I-1991).

The record to me is the pinnacle of vocal effect treatments and mixing creativity.

Some of the things done to this day when i hear it makes me shake my head.

You want to learn how to pan and how to mix and incredible number of parts and make them all clear listen to the song "Deep Water". The song is 2 songs in one and its interwoven seemlessly.

How they switch the panning of the instruments in different parts of the song is brilliant. Also when was the last time you heard panning delays on strings?

Again brilliant.

You want to balance energy and creativity listen to "Crazy". Its not only a great mix, but its a great mix for almost 6 minutes!!! It was the first single in the pop genre that placed the vocal on top of the music.

The cool thing about it is that they kept the lead dry(which we do a lot today), but the backgrounds though effected still maintain the power.

The single "Killer" is just that killer. I love the tails of the treatments on Seal's vocals. Also same thing with the panning.

And "Future,Love and Paradise"balances acoustic instruments and electronics in a fun way.

This record sounds good everywhere and is one of the best headphone listening experiences.

Of the modern stuff, for learning how to mix R&B/Pop well i love Toni Braxton's record "The Heat". It has all of the R&B/pop heavyweights at their best(sorry no Dave Pensado or Dave Way)-Dexter Simmons,Steve Hodge,Jon Gass,Manny Marroquin and the king of the pop ballads Mick Guzauski.

You get to hear different contrasting styles of the genre.

Everyone shines.

For the rock stuff i love anything Andy Wallace.

Everyone's mentioned "Grace". But the one i've been referencing lately, because of his balance of live instruments and samples(something i do all the time)is Linkin Park's "Meteora". From top to bottomn its Andy at his best. You really can hear where he is enjoying the project.

Lastly, honorable mentions go to TLA mixing Marilyn Manson's"Mechanical Animals" and Bob Clearmountain mixing of Roxy Music "Avalon".

Both are some of their best.

AL Greene "simply beautiful"
Dre and Ice Cube "natural born killaz"
Lionel Ritchie "Jesus is Love"
Prince "How come u dont call me anymore"
Sam Cooke "A change gon come"

I know this is an extra one but D'Angelo "Brown Sugar" Power at his best I think!

All pure recording heaven


Also I gotta put in a Colin England Song Dave ( I dont know if you did it) But his cover of Elton John's "Sorry seems to be the hardest word" sounded pretty damn good.

But then that's seven and I may have cheated (Also should have included some stevie wonder and the Isley Bros.)

[picksail]

Damn, it's a bit difficult to narrow the list to include only five recordings but........

1) Curtis Mayfield - Superfly soundtrack/Roger Anifsen

2) Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All/ Kerry McNabb

3) Queen - Killer Queen/ Roy Thomas Baker

4) Anything Motown

5) The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds/ ? and Mark Linett


A few more which couldn't be included in the list:


1) Xanadu soundtrack - Olivia Newton John/David Holman

2) Grease soundtrack/David Holman

3) Def Leppard - Pyromania/Mike Shipley

4) Rage Against The Machine - Self Tiltled/ Andy Wallace

5) Jeff Beck - Wired/Geoff Emerick

6) Steve Vai - Flexable/ himself


Plenty more, but this is all for now.

[Paul David]

Of the modern stuff, for learning how to mix R&B/Pop well i love Toni Braxton's record "The Heat". It has all of the R&B/pop heavyweights at their best(sorry no Dave Pensado or Dave Way)-Dexter Simmons,Steve Hodge,Jon Gass,Manny Marroquin and the king of the pop ballads Mick Guzauski.

Good call thrill. Some awesome workmanship there.

[Joe Cole]

1- The The- Mind Bomb, love the vocal sound
2- RATM- RATM - rocks
3- Jellyfish- either, but I love the drums on "That is Why" JJP
4- Beastie Boys- Ill Communication "copy and paste"
5- Jeff Beck- Blow By Blow - I always loved the intimacy of the guitar, Rhodes and drums.


2 more cents in the kitty....

[Alécio Costa]

1)Songs: It´s only Love, Somebody, Heat of the Nite - Bryan Adams, by Bob Clearmountain

2)Album: Face Up - Lisa Stansfield, By Ian Devaney

3)Albums: Counterparts and Power Windows -Rush, by Peter Collins

4)Albums: Big Generator and 90125 - Yes, By Trevor horn/Rabin

5)Song: Deusa De Marfim - Alécio Costa( sorry, its me!!) by myself

6) Album: Sowing the Seeds of Love - Tears For Fears, by.....

7)Album: Synchronicity - The Police by....

8)Album: Thriller - Michael jackson, by Quincy Jones

9)Album: Woman in Me - Chaka Khan, by.....

10)Albums: The Seventh One, Fahrenheit, Kingdom of Desire - Toto, by Elliot Scheiner/themselves

11)Maria Rita - Maria Rita, by the (late) Grammy winner Tom Capone

12)Song: Lady Marmalade - C.Aguillera ( M. Rouge ALbum) By Dave Pensado


(sorry, just now I realized it should be only 5)